Health
- Details
- Written by: Editor
The GE Senographe 2000D provides higher quality images with greater speed and efficiency. The equipment became available as of May 2.
"Our goal is to improve the quality of life and health for patients of Lake County," said David Santos, Vice President of Operations at St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake. "We want to drive down wait times, length of stay and increase access to precision care."
Part of that precision care includes the new digital mammography equipment.
St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake goes beyond offering this higher quality imaging modality.
“Along with early detection we strive to provide prompt follow-up for those women where an abnormality is suspected. When necessary, a breast ultrasound and mammogram will be scheduled on the same day at the same facility,” said Stacey Nester, mammography lead at St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake.
"Overall, the new digital technology ensures our patients are getting the best care possible at St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake," said Santos.
To schedule an appointment please contact the St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake’s Medical Imaging department at 707-995-5760.
St. Helena Hospital Clearlake, part of the Adventist Health System, is a Critical Access Hospital serving the communities of Middletown, Hidden Valley, Cobb, Lower Lake, Kelseyville, Clearlake and Clearlake Oaks. If offers 24-hour emergency care, surgery, medical imaging, intensive care, women’s care and obstetrics, and laboratory services at its Clearlake campus as well as outpatient rehabilitation services and family health centers in Clearlake, Middletown and Kelseyville, providing a full spectrum of health services to the Lake County community.
- Details
- Written by: Editor
The concept began when a local nurse, Sue Perry, shined light on a gap in community services in Lake County.
Perry took her concern to the Maternal, Child, Adolescent Health (MCAH) Advisory Board for Lake County, which then worked diligently to secure funding for the program before hiring program coordinator, Jaclyn Ley, in February 2010.
Ley has since developed an incredible team of volunteers and staff to support Lake County moms with home visits, and now, weekly playgroups.
The mission of Mother-Wise is to help new moms understand, through home visitation, that they are not alone, and if they get depressed there’s lots of help available. The group's services are available for all new and expecting moms in Lake County.
Mother-Wise is forming weekly playgroups, where new and expecting moms come together with their newborns and discuss the joys and challenges of being a new mom.
The first hour of open discussion is hosted by Laurel Bailey, and focuses on important (but often overlooked) topics like self care, sleep and breastfeeding.
Moms are then invited to participate in a one-hour yoga class, lead by Roslyn Griffin. Griffith draws from years of experience to prove that yoga is one of the best ways for moms to reconnect with their bodies. Never tried yoga before? Not a problem.
Mother-Wise's first playgroup is forming in the city of Clearlake, with more groups planned for the rest of Lake County.
Mother-Wise provides childcare for ages 1-5 during the sessions, with an Early Childhood Education specialist actively engaging kids in age-appropriate activities and games.
They are always seeking more volunteer companions with compassion and experience to share. As one Mother-Wise volunteer said, “If we could all help ONE family it would make such a huge difference.”
All of Mother-Wise's volunteer companions are trained on home-visiting, values, active listening and perinatal mood disorders.
The next volunteer training/orientation will be Aug. 18 through Aug. 20 in Lakeport.
For more information, please call Jaclyn Ley at 707-349-1210 or Vicki at 707-263-6169.
- Details
- Written by: Editor
SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has signed a friend-of-the court brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in support of the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
"Health care reform saves lives, and that is why I am determined to protect this law," Attorney General Harris said.
The filing comes one week after the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the constitutionality of the federal health care reform law in Thomas More Law Center v. Obama. It was the first federal appeals court ruling to address the constitutionality of the landmark health care law.
Attorney General Harris and nine other attorneys general argued in the brief that the Constitution grants Congress broad powers to regulate interstate commerce – and that the decision to purchase health insurance has a significant impact on interstate commerce because it allows the formation of risk pools, lowers health care costs nationally and reduces the cost of uncompensated care.
"The law strikes an appropriate, constitutional balance between federal and state authority over the health care system by creating federal requirements, backed by federal funding, to expand access to affordable coverage, while conferring considerable latitude to allow states to decide how best to design a system of federally-supported coverage that works well for their citizens," the amicus brief states.
The failure of millions of Americans to purchase health insurance has a significant impact on the states. In 2009, more than 7.2 million Californians – nearly one in four people under the age of 65 – lacked insurance for all or part of the year.
More than 5.5 million Californians who could not afford private health insurance are enrolled in government-sponsored health plans, which will cost the state a projected $42 billion in the next fiscal year.
The minimum coverage provision of the Affordable Care Act will reduce the need to shift the cost of uncompensated care of the uninsured – and will thus reduce the expenses now absorbed by the states and by individuals with health insurance.
Others joining California in this brief are Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, New York, Oregon and Vermont.
In January, the same group of attorneys general - except the District of Columbia - filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit arguing for the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act: http://oag.ca.gov/news/press_release?id=2032&p=3.
In March, those attorneys general filed an amicus brief supporting the law's constitutionality in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: http://oag.ca.gov/news/press_release?id=2047&p=3.
In April, the same states filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit supporting the constitutionality of the law: http://www.oag.ca.gov/news/press_release?id=2067.
The D.C. case is Seven-Sky v. Holder, No. 11-5047, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
- Details
- Written by: Editor
The surgeons are using a specialized syringe and new cell separation equipment to extract stem-cell-rich bone marrow from the pelvises of patients.
Called bone marrow aspiration, the surgical team considers it a less-invasive procedure for obtaining the stem cells needed to repair non-healing bones.
They say the technique could enable people to avoid the current standard procedure, which involves surgically removing bone and bone marrow from the pelvis and transplanting it to the fracture site.
“We are offering a promising new alternative for augmenting bone regeneration,” said Mark A. Lee, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery and principal investigator of the study. “Surgically removing bone and marrow from a patient’s hip can involve considerable pain and a long recovery. We’re hoping to avoid these problems while remaining at least as effective.”
For most people who have suffered a fracture in one of their long bones – the femur or tibia in the upper and lower leg, respectively, or the humerus in the upper arm – recovery normally takes from three to six months for the broken ends of the bone to grow back together.
Although most fractures respond well to surgery, some cases defy the best efforts of surgeons and do not fully heal, leaving a gap between the broken ends and causing serious complications.
According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, about six million individuals suffer fractures each year in North America.
In about 5 to 10 percent of cases, patients suffer either delayed healing or fractures that do not heal. The problem is especially troubling for the elderly, many of whom suffer from osteoporosis, a condition in which bones become weak and break more easily. For an older person, a fracture affects quality of life because it significantly reduces function and mobility, and requires an extended period of recuperation.
Lee and his colleagues are working with Rancho Cordova-based ThermoGenesis and Texas-based Celling Technologies to evaluate the effectiveness of a new cell processing device made by the companies that enables the sterile transfer of bone marrow during surgery.
The device separates out bone-forming cells – including stem cells – and produces a concentrated solution of cells the surgeons mix with tiny pieces of donor bone to create the grout-like mixture that serves as the framework for new bone formation. Surgeons pack the mixture into the fracture area before suturing the incision site closed.
“Dr. Lee’s clinical trial is the culmination of five years of collaboration with a high-tech firm, the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and our Department of Orthopaedics,” said Jan Nolta, director of the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures. “It is a great model for bringing together industry, academics and medicine to rapidly develop and test important new technology to improve clinical care for patients.”
According to Nolta, adult stem cells, such as those found in bone marrow, are analogous to paramedics because they respond rapidly to areas of tissue damage, enhancing repair, revascularization and blood flow while reducing inflammation and scarring.
Lee and his team are carefully analyzing the cellular composition of the concentrated bone-marrow mixture and correlating their findings to the degree of healing. They are using X-ray imaging, physical examinations and patient questionnaires to track patient progress and results.
“Bone marrow aspiration for treating non-healing fractures could potentially become an extremely important option as our population ages and we expect to see more broken bones,” said Lee, who also is exploring whether the bone-marrow cell mixture can be delivered to the fracture site through a minimally invasive incision rather than open surgery. “This study will help us determine the optimum therapy and technique for non-healing fractures, and we hope that this gentler approach really helps people get back on their feet faster.”
Lee’s co-investigator in the study, which is sponsored in part by ThermoGenesis and Celling Technologies, is Joel Williams, a fourth-year resident in the UC Davis Department of Orthopaedic Surgery who has been studying the use of stem cells in improving fracture repair.
The university currently has several other clinical trials using adult stem cells under way, including one for treating heart attack victims and another for people suffering from advanced peripheral vascular disease. The federal approval process also is under way to launch stem cell clinical trials for other diseases and conditions, including retinal occlusion (eye disease) and Huntington’s disease.
If the non-healing bone study provides positive results, Lee and his team plan to conduct a larger, more definitive multi-center clinical trial using this and similar cell-based technologies to demonstrate the true efficacy of using stem cells as an alternative to traditional bone grafting techniques.
“Our goal is to harness the tremendous healing potential of these cells to minimize pain and discomfort for our patients,” added Lee.
How to resolve AdBlock issue?